5. Special Taxes

Excise tax revenues increased by 6.6% in 2024, reaching a collection of 22,128 million euros ( Table 5.1 ). Growth was boosted by the gradual reinstatement of the Special Electricity Tax rate, with revenues increasing from €187 million in 2023 to €1.112 billion in 2024. Without the additional revenue from the recovery of the rate in this figure ( Table 1.5 ), the growth in revenue would have been only 2%. Except for coal and non-reusable plastic containers, all other items recorded higher revenues than the previous year, although only those associated with the Hydrocarbon Tax and the Tobacco Tax were significant. The former increased by 2.1%, thanks to higher consumption, while the latter increased by 3.2% due to higher prices and consumption.

value of consumption subject to Special Taxes remained on a downward path, although the fall ( %) was lower than that of the previous year (-13.9%; Table 1.3 ). This behavior is again explained by the fall in the value of consumption in the components that have the greatest weight in the aggregate (gasoline, diesel and electricity), which was caused by the sharp reduction in their prices and despite higher consumption.

In 2024, consumption ( Table 5.1 ) of gasoline, diesel and biofuels (3.0%) and, to a lesser extent, electricity (1.1%) increased, driven by the significant reduction in prices. Cigarette consumption also increased (2.6%), mainly due to the early withdrawal of tax deposits at the end of the year on the eve of the expected interest rate increases. On the other hand, consumption of alcohol (-2.6%) and beer (-0.7%) decreased in a context of rising prices.

prices continued their downward trend in 2024 which began the previous year. Thus, the average price of gasoline and diesel fell by 5.2% (7.4% before taxes; Table 9.1 ), a drop greater than that recorded by the price of a barrel of oil in euros, which fell by 2.2% (contrary to what happened in 2023, when the drop in the prices of gasoline and diesel was much lower than that of a barrel of oil in euros). In electricity, the drop in the retail price was 10.3% (-18.5% before taxes, Table 5.7 ). Despite the declines of the last two years, the intense inflationary cycle experienced from mid-2021 to the end of 2022 has resulted in electricity prices remaining well above the levels observed in 2019 and previous years.

Prices for alcoholic beverages registered a slight increase of 0.2% (0.4% before taxes, Table 5.2 ) and beer prices by 1.8% (1.9% before taxes, Table 5.3 ). In tobacco products, the average retail price increased by 4.8% (7.1% before taxes, Table 9.2 ), with increases in the average prices of both packs (3.7% average retail price and 6.6% before taxes) and other products (9.2% average retail price and 11.3% before taxes).

Regarding the effective rates , it should be noted that the only regulatory change in 2024 was the gradual return of the Special Tax on Electricity rate to 5.11%, a rate that had been reduced to 0.5% in previous years in order to mitigate the impact of rising electricity prices. However, as can be seen in Table 5.1 , there have been other variations in the effective rates. The increase of 3.1% in the effective rate of a pack of tobacco and of 7.1% in the effective rate of other tobacco products ( Table 5.6 ) stands out, explained in both cases by an increase in prices before taxes. The effective rate on gasoline, diesel, and biofuels also increased, albeit to a lesser extent (0.3%), due to the change in the composition of consumption, as the rate on gasoline, which is taxed at a higher rate, rose above the consumption of other fuels. This trend was also observed in the effective rate per liter of beer, which increased slightly, by 0.2%, as consumption of higher-alcohol beers increased while consumption of other beers decreased, with the largest declines among lower-alcohol beers.

The Accrued Special Taxes increased by 8.2% in 2024 ( Table 5.1 ). The growth is higher than that of revenue, which, as mentioned, increased by 6.6%. The difference is explained, mainly, by two reasons: because the 2024 tax collection only includes eleven months of the Special Tax on Electricity with the rate increase (the collection from January 2024 is due in December 2023, still with the rate of 0.5%); and because the December 2024 tax on Tobacco Products, which registered a very high increase compared to the same month of the previous year, was entered in 2025.

Revenue from the Hydrocarbon Tax increased by 2.1% ( Table 5.5 ), following 0.6% in the previous year. Growth is virtually the same as that of consumption, although the two main products show very different performances, with increases of around 8% for gasoline and slightly over 1% for automotive diesel. The progressive reduction in the number of diesel vehicles is behind this uneven trend in consumption.

In the Tax on Tobacco Products, revenue increased by 3.2% ( Table 5.6 ) to 6.927 billion euros, the highest figure since 2012. In terms of accrued tax, the increase was even greater, at 6%, but part of that increase was not reflected in the cash flow for the reason mentioned above. The growth in accrued tax was greater in other activities (8.3%) than in cigarettes (5.7%) and is explained by two factors: On the one hand, the increase in the average price before taxes (7.1% for the total, 6.6% for packs and 11.3% for other products) and, on the other, the evolution of consumption (2.2% for the total, 2.6% for packs and 1.1% for other products). It's worth noting that consumption had fallen by 0.8% through September, with the entire increase concentrated in the last quarter due to the pre-stockpiling process that typically accompanies interest rate hikes.

Revenue from the Electricity Tax rose to 1.112 billion euros ( Table 5.7 ) after two years with residual figures due to the rate reduction. In 2024, the rate gradually recovered (first going from 0.5% to 2.5% for accruals in the first quarter, to 3.8% for accruals in the second quarter, and to 5.11% in the second half of the year). This return to normalcy, along with a slight increase in consumption, allowed revenue to reach a level not far from those recorded before COVID and the price crisis.

In 2024, revenues from the Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages and the Tax on Beer increased slightly, by 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively ( Tables 5.2 and 5.3 ). In both cases, revenues were boosted by adjustments between cash and accruals, as consumption in 2024 fell for both products amid rising prices.

In the second year of the Non-Reusable Plastic Packaging Tax, revenues reached 571 million euros, 20 million euros less (-3.3%) than in 2023. The reason for this decline, as also observed in accrued tax, lies in the tax management that involves issuing refunds. These refunds began to be filed and made late in the year 2023, and therefore, when comparing the collections of both years, 2024 comes out worse. If instead of analyzing net income, we look at gross income ( Table 7.1 ), taking into account that in 2023 there was one month less declarations (the first one was presented in February), the result is a very similar collection in the two years (646 million since February 2024 and 645 in 2023).